Growing Up
by budchick
Summary: Yugi Motou meets Hikaru Shindou. In another world, they would meet and talk about their various game-obsessed spirits, the best way to dye hair and whether card games or go is better, but not this one.


For a place that had such great gamers, Domino's game arcade was actually pretty shit.

Yugi and Joey went there to hang out anyway. The alternative was Kaibaland, which, while great and technologically advanced, also had a few games where you could lose your soul. If Yugi had to choose between cobwebbed 1960s pinball-machines or fancy 3D projection technology that could kill you, well, there was no contest. Never say that Yugi didn't learn his lessons.

"Mom's been asking me what I want to do when I grow up," Yugi says, flicking one disinterested eye over the bowling alley. "I didn't pick chemistry or law as my electives, so she wanted to know if I wanted to work with computers or do social work."

"Yeah, and?"

"I told her I wanted to be a professional gamer."

"Ah shit."

:::

His mom hadn't taken the news too well. Since 'professional gaming' brought to mind images of fat, unwashed men who spent upwards of eight hours on World of Warcraft, this was perfectly understandable. Her choice of battleground was the kitchen.

"I bet it was that Valentine girl, wasn't it?" she yelled, shaking a spatula in Yugi's direction. For a very short woman, she could be very loud. "Using her wiles and leading you astray!"

Yami Yugi watched in avid interest as Yugi's mom repeatedly prodded Yugi's chest at random moments to make a point. He whispered into Yugi's ear with one hip cocked against the counter.

_Is Mai Valentine seducing my poor hikari away from the respectable life?_

Yugi looked balefully back at his Yami for a moment – but only a moment, because his mom yelled at him to pay attention.

_Ha_, Yugi thought to his Yami. _I only wish_.

"It's a valid career choice, mom," he replied out loud. "Kaiba's a professional gamer and he does pretty well for himself."

"When you become CEO of your own gaming company, you can do whatever you like!" She argued and worried and made more expansive hand movements. "Do you think he'd take on an intern or two? The Game Shop is very good and all, but it makes such losses…"

"But I don't want to take over the game shop, I want to be a professional gamer," Yugi muttered.

:::

Ever since she'd gotten back from her overseas work trip, she'd been watching him do his homework like a hawk. His Yami had understood homework as a game, but it was one that he was apparently content to stick his nose up at or run away from. Yugi hadn't so much as dared to open the new booster pack for Dungeon Dice he'd bought a week ago, because his mom scorned Otogi's dice game.

"Gambling! Do you know where this leads you Yugi, do you?"

He was afraid to take the YuGiOh cards out, just in case she confiscated those too.

She had been especially loud with her proclamation to his Grandpa about how Yugi was too old for 'childish card games.' At this rate, he was going to go spare in a week.

:::

It all came to a head one day, when Yugi came home and spotted real estate advertisements circled and left on the table.

"Domino has very high crime rates. I think it would be a good idea to relocate," she said. Yugi thought idly, that Bakura's legacy of leaving soulless people around was finally leaving its mark.

"The town has a reputation, but nothing's ever happened to us mom. It's all rumours."

She shook her head. "Do you remember that Ushio boy? He used to go to your school. I spoke to his mother the other day; he's in a hospital now, after being attacked on the street. She says it's PTSD."

Oh. That wasn't Bakura's fault.

_He deserved it,_ Yami said. He was smiling at the memory. Osiris knew, Yugi respected his Yami like no other, but sometimes his Yami could be scary. _They can give him as much medication as they want. He's not going to get better._

Yugi pondered this and felt a little twinge of guilt. Eternal imprisonment was somewhat harsh for a crime Ushio had never committed. Intentions weren't criminal.

_It's been two years. Maybe we should give him his soul back. _ It wasn't just Ushio – Yami had a line of victims several buildings long. _Maybe we should return all the lost souls. We've got the power to do that now. _

_No._

Yami hadn't even paused before answering. Yugi was taken aback for a moment.

_Why not? We have that trap card – Return Soul. We could do it and be back in an afternoon. The shadow creatures all obey their Pharaoh._

Yami's face was imperiously blank.

_They need to be punished. Their punishment is for eternity; those were the conditions. It doesn't matter if we could retrieve their souls. This is how the Shadow Realm works._

…_I don't get that._

_They are never getting their souls back, _Yami concluded with a finality.

:::

If arguing was his mother was tiring, raised voices and quiet sobbing coming from her bedroom night after night, arguing with his Yami was downright horrific. The cold silences felt like knives driving through his heart.

Fortunately, Yugi had good friends. Joey and Tristan kept him away from the house after school, and Tea snuck him free drinks at her diner.

"There must be some sort of game that she would approve of," Joey said. Since Yugi couldn't even look at his YuGiOh cards without being moved to tears, finding another game was a good idea.

Some enquiries at the school administrator's building resulted in the discovery of a previously-unknown Go Club.

"Hey, I remember you!" Joey cried out. The Go Club member he was talking to quivered a little in his boots. Ushio hadn't been the only school bully around; although Joey and Tristan had changed their ways, their reputation still lingered. "This is my best bud Yugi, you're going to take good care of him, aren't you?"

They took Joey's enforced order a little bit better when they discovered that Yugi could play surprisingly well. He joined the Go Squad, and they in turn, would introduce him to Touya Akira's Go salon.

:::

"Go? I suppose that's all right. But you will be going into business, is that right? Yugi?"

Yugi made insei within a week of learning the game. From there on, it was just a matter of crawling up through the ranks.

His bedroom floor was littered with black and white go sheets. Yugi spent a considerable amount of time studying new plays, and his new activity was enough to distract him from his troubles with his Yami.

Maybe Yami couldn't resist the lure of a new game. Maybe it was his untouched deck of YuGiOh cards. (Maybe it was Yugi's constant moping and then the subsequent lack of attention). Either way, he broke within a month.

_It would be better to place that stone here, _Yami dropped casually one day, sidling in next to Yugi as if nothing had ever happened.

_How would you know how to play? _Yami wouldn't answer.

The other insei turned from being friendly and helpful to wailing about 'not yet another terrifying strength in the go world.'

Eventually, they came across a mouthy teen with dyed-blonde bangs. The black-haired, girly-looking teenager accompanying him looked at Yugi's own hair and groaned.

"Copycat!" The mixed blonde-and black-haired boy yelled, pointing at Yugi.

"Hey! It's natural!"

:::

_Be free, you good-for-nothing useless spirits, _Yami said, as he released the trapped souls. _Know that you have my light to thank for this mercy._

Yugi was with his other self on the roof. The souls appeared as glowing lights of various shades, floating like fireflies into the air. They sat and watched them fly into the air in a companionable silence.

:::

It turned out that Hikaru Shindou was actually a big name in go. Who would have guessed?

Yugi watched the other teenager discuss an 8th-dan game in a teaching group. He was far too polite to mention the spirit in traditional robes that seemed to be following Hikaru around – unlike other teenagers he could name. However, there was a limit to the things he would let go. _Cheating_, was not one of them.

"Why don't you think of your own strategies, instead of parroting what other people say and taking the credit," he commented.

"Shuusaku's ideas are public domain," Akira replied.

"Not Shuusaku. Him –"

Before Yugi had even finished pointing, Hikaru grabbed hold of him and walked away briskly, forcing Yugi to follow. "Oh yeah! Who's calling someone a copycat, copycat!" There were times when Yugi very much disliked his short stature.

Eventually, Hikaru shoved Yugi into an out-of-the-way corner.

"You can see him?" he whispered.

"Of course I can see him," Yugi replied. That was when Yami stepped into Yugi's body, turned Yugi's and Hikaru's position around and shoved Hikaru into the wall.

:::

Flash forward to the scene where Yami and Sai were staring each other down in the foyer, while the other normal people of Japan walked on by, oblivious to the death match about to occur. It lasted until they realised that the other spirit had beaten Touya Meijin in a go match.

Then it was smiles all around. Unlike Hikaru, Sai had manners, and he was a bit more polite about hiding his glee behind a fan. Yami couldn't care less if his darkly competitive smile scared small children, so it was probably a good thing these small children couldn't see him.

"Using your spirit to play your games for you is cheating!" Yugi insisted.

"I could say the same for you," Hikaru responded, now that he could see Yami.

"Not that I have a leg to stand on, but we're partners. I don't let him _dictate_ my every move," Yugi pointed out.

There was really only one way to settle things – with a go game.

:::

:::

:::

Those were the golden days. Before Yami defeated Zorc. Before he learnt his name. With all Millenium items and the three God Cards, they approached Shadi's Shrine.

:::

Yugi came back to Akira's salon after Yami is gone. Hikaru's at his usual table. His face is a study in depression, and it's reflected in his game.

"You too?" is all that he says. Yugi nods numbly. Hikaru understood.

They settled down for what would be the first game where they were playing solely as themselves.

"Do you think they're playing games against each other in the afterlife?" It's the first thing Yugi's said all day.

The game became a masterpiece of black and white stones. The kidou for it was eventually featured on Go Weekly magazine's pages, and the generation of insei following Shindou's discussed it over and over again.

The game also turned out to be their last.

:::

Challenging old men to chess wasn't especially exciting and it definitely wasn't the same feeling Yugi got pointing to Kaiba and challenging him to a shadow match. But there were more opponents and tournaments, and the cash prizes tended to be bigger. The cash stream was steadier. It brought a relieved smile to his Mom's face whenever he came home with money. Lately, his grandpa's face has been smiling too, because everyone in the family looked like they were getting along.

The challenge just wasn't there anymore. The wins and the losses; they meant nothing to Yugi. Yugi added another mental notch to the amount of things Yami's ruined for him forever, and then forgot about it.

:::

His YuGiOh cards are somewhere in the attic now. There's a university application form for a business degree, and homework to be done on his desk.


End file.
